Lawrence joins in nationwide vigils for Trayvon Martin

Lawrence joined cities across the country tonight holding vigils in memory of Trayvon Martin. About 50 people attended the memorial in South Park, many dressed in hoodies in honor of Martin, where they held candles and shared their personal struggles of facing discrimination.

Audrey Pope, a black woman and lifelong Lawrence resident, says as a mother, Martin's death affected her personally.

"What happens when my 3-year-old son everyone thinks is so cute turns 17?" Pope said. "When President Obama said, 'Trayvon Martin could have been me,' that hit my heart."

Pope, who organized the event, says she wanted the vigil not only to serve as a memorial for the teenager killed last year but also to join the nation's dialogue about how to move past racial profiling.

"To see people coming together nationwide to talk about this divisive issue," Pope said, "that's the silver lining."

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Comments

Did anyone watch the trail? Granted Zimmerman placed himself in that situation, once Trayvon started pounding Zimmerman's head (deadly force) into the concrete sidewalk, Zimmerman had a legal right to defend himself. End of story!

What you are saying then is that any one with CCH can go out and confront anyone else they feel is"Trouble". When that confrontation turns sour and the CCH carrier feels his or her life is in danger, They can draw their weapon and "Protect themselves" from what they felt was a possible deadly confrontation THEY started. Is that OK with You? What if YOU are the unarmed person the CCH holder thinks maybe "Trouble"? THAT is a perspective I think most people are missing.

Depends on the Degree of confrontation. I know that you do not have to make contact with someone to be charged with assault. Common sense should tell you to stay away from confrontations not go looking for them. The old saying goes"A man who goes looking for trouble usually finds it." George Zimmerman found more trouble than he was looking for or could handle. He should have stayed in the car and let the LEO's do their job. Now, A teenager is dead. None of this should have happened.

Seeing's you obviously did not watch the trail on TV let me break this down for you! Zimmerman (A) had authority to be there, Trayvon suspect (B) did not, and subject (A) confronted Subject (B) subject (B) re-acted aggressively. Fight ensued. Subject (B) on top of subject (A). Suspect (B) was pounding victim's (A) head into the concrete sidewalk , victim (A) which had authority to be there used deadly force to save his life. End of story.

As a side note, Zimmerman did not use the stand your ground defense. This was a simple legal right to defend yourself against deadly force issue which would have stood up in any court in the United States.

Zimmerman Had no more authority to be there than Trayvon. Neighborhood watch is a citizens group. Trayvon was a citizen. He was not breaking any laws. The fact that Zimmerman called authorities but did not wait for them and went against their orders precipitated all subsequent events.

Yep, that’s why the State Attorney General, The FBI, and several other government agencies told the DA not to files charges against Zimmerman, huh? Maybe because there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute the Zimmerman case? You think?? That and the Laws in the State of Florida are pretty clear to me. Where did you go to Law School at??

They also saw the Potential Social Unrest this case is causing. Going to trial was not in The States best interest. The Results Speak for themselves.As far as my Law School: You will find that out if and when you ever face me in Court.

I take it you are an attorney. You just said that something other than the facts of the case to some degree determine whether there should be a trial. I say social unrest is not relevant because the state owes society as much safety as we demand and can afford and the constitution owes the accused due process.

If you are saying actions of third parties unrelated to the accusations addressed by the trial have any relevancy in a court of law you should be disbarred.

The State of Florida decided the same thing. Due Process is a must. At first they did not want to prosecute. Their decision to go ahead and let this go to trial had some thing to do with what they thought the public backlash would be if they did not even try the case. Don't think that was not taken into account. I think the protests and demonstrations would have been much worse if they had never tried the case.If you want to recommend the Florida DA and AG should be disbarred for apparently making these same assumptions, be my guest.

The outrage is not only on the fact that an unarmed person lost their life trying to protect themselves. It is there is no accountability to the individual who started the problem and encroached on someone's freedom to travel freely in this country.

Had the jury decided that GZ was wrong in the events leading up to and after, and decided on manslaughter with a limited amount of jail time, probation, and gun rights taken away for a limited amount of time, some people would have been okay with that decision.

But to decide on not guilty and you are free to go, here is your gun back, is a travesty.

"For every action there is an equal but opposite action". That doesn't mean fist against gun!

Antonio - until you understand the facts of the case and how the law works, please refrain from making these silly arguments. Where in the world did you come up with the idea that TM was trying to protect himself? There is not one iota of evidence pointing to this.

Here is one of the many things that trouble me. Zimmerman designated himself as a member of the "neighborhood watch". In that role, he armed himself like a cop and pursued a "suspect" like a cop. But, he had neither the training of a cop, the uniform designating armed authority, nor the limitations we as a society place on people who have armed authority. CCH + this verdict sets the stage for a new untrained police force, who are unconstrained by pesky things like the constitution.

Are you saying Trayvon was just a child out playing in the rain? Go to any High School function and ask for all the "Black Children" to raise their hands. Then count how many raised hands you see. There will be none. No one of any race in high school still considers himself to be a "child". Did you?

According to testimony by the actual police officer who worked with Zimmerman to form the neighborhood watch group, civilians are specifically told not to follow people or confront them.

So, even though the dispatcher merely told him they "didn't need him" to do that, he had been informed by law enforcement officials that they didn't want neighborhood watch folks following people or confronting them.

nice to hear all of the non minorities speak. after all you all should be experts on your
culture. all of the times non minorities have been the victims of paranoid stereotyping
assumptive people. the Greenwood Massacre in Tulsa in 1920, the Scottsboro Boys
in Alabama, Emmitt Till. I as a mixed blood Native American have been followed
in Brown, Doniphan, and Osage County, Kansas, and in Osage County I pulled
over to ask them why they were following my wife and I for no apparent reason.
I feared for my safety with rural officers. I got a ticket for pulling over for not using
my blinker soon enough even as a feared for our safety. I accused them of
profiling and the judge allowed the testimony in Lyndon, Kansas, by my wife
on the stand and I still had to pay the $144 fine. At least I didn't have to pay for
my life for questioning a rent a cop like Treyvon did.

Do you think you would have got a ticket if you had continued to drive down the road instead of suddenly pulling over to the side and accusing the police of profiling you? After all they had not attempted to stop you and were only driving behind your car. That happens to all of us.

homechanger, the first amendment allows for the right of free assembly whether
one or many. since when does an armed hall monitor have the right to assail
the rights of a person to assemble and travel through an area unless it is
unjest profiling? I guess hall monitors have the right to be judge, jury,
and executioner. No one, denier, talk radio hosts, or the historically and
culturally oblivious should be allowed to live this travesty down. Be ready
to answer for this miscarriage of justice for a long time. Only the conscientious
care right?

Well thanks for the reply. To bad it made no sense as a reply to my post. Travon is dead because he assaulted George. Beating him pretty bad. Broken nose split scalp etc. that is the crime that got him killed. You tusch may be comfortable in the fetal position hoping for a spark of human kindness to save you from death but not all of us are.
No assault no death. Simple.

I don't get the concern over the hoodie. I own two and it seems to me that people of every age, race and social group wear them.

Was Little Red Riding Hood really the victim? Hoodie.

Those who are mono-racial or mono-cultural families are going to think of themselves as not having a dog in this hunt and are going to be indifferent. Those of us who have children or grandchildren, who look like Trayvon will grieve, be angered, be in despair because to us this means that the lives of our loved ones are of no consequence.

I taught my daughter, a girl of color, to be proud of her heritage, to be proud of being an American because that means she can stand tall and stand eye to eye with anyone and not back down. Same with her daughter. Three generations of women who speak their mind and yes, sometimes display impatience or anger. It is far better and safer to let someone express anger, no matter what race or gender, than to teach them to keep it bottled up until it explodes Anger between two people can be resolved. Silence never can.

There is nothing wrong with wearing a hoodie. All of us have worn them and there is a definite use for wearing a hoodie. Where they are not in good taste is when it is 95 degrees outside and it is worn into a 7-11 or similar place at 3 AM. The wearer is usually up to no good. This is what draws attention to hoodies. Now this does not apply to Trayvon's hoodie, but to hoodies in general. That's why they draw attention because criminals tend to wear them to cover their face.during robberies. So there are times when hoodies draw attention from everyone close by.
And I agree expression of anger is OK when it is done through speech only. Where it crosses the line is when violence is included in the expression of anger. If there was only an exchange of voice anger between Trayvon and Zimmerman there would have been a different outcome. One of them crossed that line. Which one of them that was first to cross the line is why we are having this discussion.

"Those of us who have children or grandchildren, who look like Trayvon will grieve, be angered, be in despair because to us this means that the lives of our loved ones are of no consequence."

If you can be convinced that your offspring are of no consequence because of a jury's verdict in a case 1000 miles away, then the problem you have is inside yourself. Worse yet, the problem they have is inside you.

I posted this above but let me repost incase you missed it! This was not a race issue! Zimmerman (A) had authority to be there, Trayvon suspect (B) did not, and subject (A) confronted Subject (B) subject (B) re-acted aggressively. Fight ensued. Subject (B) on top of subject (A). Suspect (B) was pounding victim's (A) head into the concrete sidewalk , victim (A) which had authority to be there used deadly force to save his life. End of story.

As a side note, Zimmerman did not use the stand your ground defense. This was a simple legal right to defend yourself against deadly force issue which would have stood up in any court in the United States.

Ms. Pope,
There are many instances of racial profiling that happen in this country, but this is not one of them. It is unfortunate that TM is dead and that there is so much racial profiling that still exists today but its important to understand the facts of this case and choose an appropriate situation to make any progress and difference with profiling.

A high school civics class could have delivered a better defense than the prosecutors for the State of Florida. The death of this young man is being protested as a murder. And the jurors were wrong they say. And justice has not been served they rant. It's all quite pathetic and will surely go down in history as such.

As someone who was repeatedly stalked in Lawrence by strangers and then harshly and vindictively punished for verbally standing up for myself by telling these people to get lost, I'm in mourning for the Martins and for our white supremacist society as a whole. Here is the song("American Skin") Bruce Springsteen recently dedicated to Trayvon Martin in Ireland: